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The
elections to the Stormont Assembly on the 26th of
November proved to be fruitful in at least one way.
They clearly exhibited that, despite the media and
political hype, the Good Friday Agreement is “dead
in the water”. The people of the North have spoken.
Politicians need to face facts; the Agreement hasn’t
worked. The Assembly is still suspended; the Provisional
IRA is still active as are the various Loyalist groups;
and the British Government still makes the final decision.
The
electorate have become even more polarised, with the
middle ground and moderate parties of the centre being
swept aside, to be replaced by sectarian loyalties.
These loyalties have resulted in an unworkable political
arrangement, where the largest party in the Assembly
simply refuses to participate in it and is dead-set
upon its destruction.
As
a young republican I have to admit I was neither surprised
nor upset by Wednesday’s results. They have simply
vindicated the Republican position that there can
be no stable form of government in Ireland without
the dissolution of the State of Northern Ireland and
the return of Irish sovereignty to its people, as
well as their right to self-determination. How can
democracy ever exist in a state designed specifically
to ensure its absence? A state created using artificial
boundaries and borders to guarantee an in-built majority.
Sinn
Fein herald their electoral gains as some sort of
victory for republicanism and evidence that the majority
of ‘the people’ support the Agreement. True
that Sinn Fein did gain 5.89% of the vote. But it
could hardly be said that it was on a republican ticket.
They seem to have overlooked the fact that, although
they made gains at the expense of the SDLP (who lost
4.98% of their percentage of the vote) this is not
due to a sudden radicalisation of the nationalist
voter, who has suddenly moved to a more republican
position on the republican spectrum. It is instead
due to Sinn Fein’s movement towards a constitutional
nationalist stance that has ensured these electoral
gains. I wouldn’t exactly call that a victory
for republicans.
Their
claim about the Agreement enjoying the majority of
popular support also doesn’t bear up to close
scrutiny. It is true that over 70% of votes cast went
to pro-Agreement parties. The most significant figure
in the elections, for me however has been the combined
number of people who didn’t turn out, which coupled
with the number of first preference votes gained by
the DUP who ran on an Anti-Agreement ticket sheds
a somewhat less flattering light on the future of
the Agreement. Given the fact that 37% of the electorate
didn’t participate in the elections and that
25% of those who did vote chose DUP candidates as
their first preference it could be said that 53% of
those eligible to vote and the majority of people
living here are against the Good Friday Agreement.
This is of course excluding the number of votes for
“dissidents” in the UUP, such as Jeffrey
Donaldson and David Burnside both of whom ran on Anti-Agreement
tickets and who achieved 34% and 18.9% respectively
of votes cast in their constituencies.
The
election results have been described by political
commentators as a “crisis” and as spelling
the end for the Agreement. Perhaps that’s what
is needed. After all what has the Agreement really
achieved? In practical terms very little. Much is
made of the “progress” made and the “sacrifices”
made to “get this far”. “Peace”
and “the future” are also key words employed
by advocates of the Agreement. They always manage
to forget to tell us where ‘this far’ is
exactly. Ask the communities of interface areas if
the Agreement working. Tell Gareth O’Connor’s
family and all of the families and victims of punishment
beatings and killings since 1994 that the Provisional
IRA is dedicated to exclusively peaceful means and
that they are prepared to put their weapons beyond
use. Tell the relatives of all those murdered for
purely sectarian reasons that the Loyalist and Nationalist
communities have been brought closer together by the
Agreement.
The
November elections were just another pointless exercise,
meant to appease the ‘masses’. The sole
purpose of these elections was to create the impression
that democracy has finally come to ‘Northern
Ireland’. The elections were designed to impress
upon people that they had the right to exercise their
democratic right to vote. As a first time voter I
can’t say I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm.
It is reassuring that, however dire the consequences
of Wednesday’s elections are for the Agreement
were, at least all the parties can come to an agreement
on one issue. All agree that they should still receive
around 70% of their salaries.
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